Across the nation.

Stealth Fighter Jet Crash Site Is Sealed

September 16, 1997|By From Tribune News Services.

MIDDLE RIVER, MARYLAND — Citing national security, military police kept nine families from returning to their homes Monday, seized photographers' film and cordoned off a neighborhood after the crash of a stealth fighter jet, an aircraft whose very existence was once a state secret.

The clampdown began almost immediately after the F-117A jet crashed during an air show Sunday, hitting a house and injuring six people.

Three blocks of the Baltimore suburb were evacuated as troops searched for pieces of the $45 million, black, bat-winged plane.

Amateur video of Sunday's crash showed a piece of the aircraft flying off before the wedge-shaped jet went down in a slow spin. The pilot ejected safely.